… In 1964 and 1972 the losing Party nominated someone that the winning Party found easy to cast as a dangerous extremist.
…
Yes.
This is not why Lyndon Johnson won a full term in 1964 and Richard Nixon re-election in 1972.
Goldwater, with his ideas, was years ahead of time. And the conditions were a U.S. president having succeeded an assassinated predecessor. It was one year’s time. A realigning period for the presidency for the Democrats. The nation was not about to go through another leader. In 1964, it did not matter who the Republicans nominated.
Nixon ushered in a realigning period, for the presidency, in 1968. Every U.S. president who presided over a realigning period won re-election. Given the two current, major U.S. political parties—Republican and Democratic—this was applicable to: 1860 and 1864 Abraham Lincoln; 1896 and 1900 William McKinley; 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944 Franklin Roosevelt. This was also true with 2008 and 2012 Barack Obama. And this was applicable to 1968 and 1972 Richard Nixon. For 1972 Nixon, his landslide was not because of the narrative on George McGovern. For Nixon, his job approval, according to Gallup’s historic timeline, reached 60 percent by Election Day. It was in the high-50s percentile range during much of the general-election period. It reached 60 percent by October. Nixon would have won at this level no matter who the Democrats nominated.
